Our Society's Unhealthy obsession with age:
So, a few weeks back, I was arguing over a table of beer (I don't drink beer sha) with some random, rough looking guy whom I had heard about his uncommon sycophancy and butt licking attitude about the popularity of a struggling politician from my village.
In the course of our argument, I kept debunking his unfounded claims until things came to a head when he asked me to shut up because according to him, I wasn't even born by 1996 (which is not true though).
That ultra defensive approach got me wondering why our society places so much premium on age above common sense.
Nobody cares how sound your argument or suggestion is because according to them, 'you are still a child and therefore, cannot understand how things work'.
Seriously, our proclivity for associating old age with wisdom is unhealthy and harmful.
Granted, an older person may be more experienced than the younger person as a result of his number of days but that alone does not make the young blood unimportant, and his input irrelevant.
For our society to move forward, there must be a healthy blend between youthfulness and experience because like a famous rapper once said, 'the old people's ideas need the young men's energy to flourish'(Paraphrase).
A person's idea and suggestion does not necessarily need to be discarded on account of his age.
The old can learn from the young and vice versa.
I do not agree that age is just a number, and at the same time, I do not agree that foolishness is synonymous with the young because in essence, anybody can be wise and anybody can be foolish.
No particular age group has a monopoly over wisdom or folly.
In the end, let us discard our unhealthy obsession with age because old or young, ideas, opinions and views can spring up.
Comments
Post a Comment